Precision Control - '62-'67 Nova Rack and Pinion Upgrade

Upgrade Your Nova To Rack-And-Pinon With The Church Boys Bolt-In Conversion.

With each and every day that passes, engineers are designing, tweaking, and/or improving automotive components. Things are getting smaller, more efficient, and more precise. Just because you have an old muscle car doesn't mean you have to watch new car owners enjoy all that fresh stuff. Case in point: the steering system on the '62-67 Chevy II/Novas leaves a lot to be desired. Wouldn't it be nice to upgrade the little shoebox to a new rack-and-pinion setup? Your darn right it would be.

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Enter Church Boys Racing. This company spent numerous hours figuring out the perfect way to integrate a rack into these cars. Instead of trying to retain the rear steer location, they made it a front steer configuration to completely remove the steering linkage from the back. With it being a front steer rack, there is no need for a special oil pan; in fact, this conversion works with the stock pan. An added bonus to moving the steering forward is now you can run a rear sump pan for better oil control. Furthermore, if you are planning an LS swap, you can use the truck or F-body pan, not just the sometimes hard to find late-model GTO pan.

The rack-and-pinion conversion will simply bolt up using existing holes and add strength to the front subframe thanks to the new tubular crossmember. In addition to the rack-and-pinion steering conversion, the company also offers tubular lower control arms, billet steering arms, and a sway bar named the "Church Bar."

The conversion is sold as a complete kit that includes the tubular crossmember, billet rack clamps, CNC-made steering arms, tubular lower control arms, 1 1/8-inch front sway bar, an ididit steering column with accessories, and the steering linkage. The complete kit will set you back $2,200 and can be installed in a weekend at home-if you have a good set of tools and decent mechanical skills, that is. Follow along as we install Church Boys Racing's rack conversion on a '65 wagon to give the driver precision control.

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Just for the heck of it we tested the car on a 420-foot slalom course with the cones set 70 feet apart. With Jason Scudellari behind the wheel the car went a best of 37.7mph stock and 40.9 mph after. That's a 3.2 mph improvement-huge for such simple stuff.

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Precision Control - '62-'67 Nova Rack and Pinion Upgrade

To get started on the conversion, everything from the upper control arms down was removed and tossed in the swap meet pile. Even the factory crossmember and strut rod brackets came off. The strut rod brackets on the early models will be bolted on, while some of the later models will be held on with rivets.

The spindles were taken to the bench and the factory, rear facing, steering arms removed. The holes need to be opened up for the 1/2-inch bolts the new steering arms use.

To gain access to the steering box, the driver's-side header was removed. Then the technician lowered the car down, removed the steering wheel, and raised the car back up.

The steering shaft on these cars is one piece so removing the steering wheel will allow the shaft to slide out of the column with the steering box once its unbolted from the frame.

Now the empty column was taken out of the car. A new tilt column that is provided in the conversion kit will replace it. You can use your stock column if you so desire, but you will need to modify the steering shaft. Church Boys will provide detail instruction should you choose this option.

The rack was attached to the new crossmember via two billet aluminum mounts, before being installed on the car.

Instead of using a lower arm and a strut rod Church Boys created this new lower control arm. It uses the stock lower arm mount and a new front point provided by a new bracket. The new arms have adjustable heim joints at both pivots to easily set the alignment.

Here is a good look at the difference between the stock and Church Boys' components. As you can see, not only are fewer items to wear out, there are a lot fewer joints. By having a better style of steering gear (the rack-and-pinion) and fewer joints, the new steering system will be nice and precise.

The freshly drilled spindles were set back on and the new steering arms bolted up. All the kits now come with a sweet set of CNC-billet aluminum arms instead of these cast prototypes. The tie-rod ends were next and once tightened to the specs in the instructions, the cotter pins were installed to prevent the nut from coming loose.

The Church Bar is next. The frame brackets will use one factory hole and one new hole that must be drilled. Then the bar was slipped in the U-brackets and attached to the lower control arms. Also in this photo you can see the new bracket that provides the front pivot point for the new lower control arm.

Here is a good look at the difference between the stock and Church Boys' components. As you can see, not only are fewer items to wear out, there are a lot fewer joints. By having a better style of steering gear (the rack-and-pinion) and fewer joints, the new steering system will be nice and precise.

The kit comes with two universal joints and a length of DD-shaped bar stock to connect the column to the rack. One joint is attached to the base of the steering column and the other at the rack. Then the shaft is slipped in the upper joint and marked for size down at the lower joint. After being cut to size, the shaft is locked into position by the set-screws in the joints.

Just for the heck of it we tested the car on a 420-foot slalom course with the cones set 70 feet apart. With Jason Scudellari behind the wheel the car went a best of 37.7mph stock and 40.9 mph after. That's a 3.2 mph improvement-huge for such simple stuff.

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